Halloween 2021

We had a nice Halloween weekend. Lee went out on the Friday night to see a band called Send More Paramedics, he's liked them for two decades and they've been split up for a while but they reformed to play two gigs just before Halloween. Their last song is called Zombie Crew and I really love it too, Lee videoed it and it sounds really good actually. He got home late and had had a good time. 

We slept in on Saturday but then did some tidying. Our attic room is big and full of stuff, but needed a clean and a bit of a tidy. I got rid of a bunch of stuff which made the area around my desk a lot better. I moved some stuff around in the Ikea shelves behind my desk too which will hopefully get some things that I use often within reach which I like. 

I painted my nails after we'd finishing tidying. I don't really do Halloween but I thought a green and gold glitter polish had a bit of a Halloween feel. We made wild rice and mushroom soup for tea, which was absolutely gorgeous. Lee had been to the market in Penistone earlier in the day and bought fresh sourdough bread to eat with it. This was the recipe. We watched The Omen over tea which I can watch because although it's scary it's not too scary for me, and I know when all the jumpy bits are. 

On Halloween we again had a bit of a lie in and then did some more tidying upstairs in the attic. We hoovered both rugs and they both look way better now. I tried to take a picture of my spooky kitten Jasmine with some Halloween stuff but she wasn't altogether playing. She's cute though, right?

Lee made a dinner for about 5pm, as we were heading out later. We had giant Yorkshire puddings filled with veggie sausages, vegetables, roast potatoes, and gravy. It was so nice and warming. Then I got dressed (I'd been in pyjamas all day) and we headed to the Showcase cinema near Leeds for a showing of Scream. I'd been looking for something to do on Halloween and saw this was showing, so booked it. We both love the film and it was excellent to see it on the big screen, I picked up on loads of things I've not noticed before.

I was wearing my self bleached t-shirt with the bike cog, and my lucky dip Carolina Dress Room skirt as I thought it looked a bit witchy. I also pulled out my 'strange and unusual' necklace, because I myself am strange and unusual. 

It was a lovely weekend together!

Tidy shelves behind my desk. This is penpal supplies

Ciate green and gold nail polish

Wild rice and mushroom soup - I recommend, and it's vegan!

Happy Halloween!

Jasmine being a little cutie

Strange and unusual - I think I bought this from Punky Pins or something

At the cinema! 

My outfit when we got home!

Lunch at Pho in Sheffield

At the end of October I went to Pho in Sheffield with Sarah and baby R. I went in August with Laura and Franklin and wanted to go with Sarah as I thought she'd like it too. I was a bit concerned about parking in the city centre due to it being half term, so I decided to go to the park and ride in Middlewood and get on the tram from there. This worked really well - I wasn't anxious and it cost just £4.50, which is fine. It was fun, I do like a tram!

We were there a bit early so we stood outside chatting before going in for our table. I had exactly the same as what I had when I went with Laura - summer rolls with peanut sauce and Vietnamese curry with rice. Both were so delicious, nicely spiced. I'm going to have to learn how to make Vietnamese curry because it's so good. 

I got home around 2.45 and needed some petrol, so Lee and I popped into town and went to Costa at the same time. I sat in the living room for a while drinking it, and I took a cute photo of Poppy, please see below. Lee was going out in the evening to see a gig - his first one for ages - so I just stayed in in my pyjamas and watched a film.

Summer rolls with peanut sauce

Sarah and lovely baby R - I cuddled her for a bit and bopped her nose AND kissed her belly. Also she's ticklish which is adorable

Curry - it had tons of veggies and tofu in it, I really can't fault it

And my cute little Pop

Chocolate Festival in Sheffield

Towards the end of October Lee and I went to a chocolate festival in Sheffield. I had seen stuff about it on Twitter ages ago and bought us tickets. We had to choose a time entry so I went for 10am - noon. It was held in Kelham Island Museum so Lee dropped me off and then went to park nearby. The queue was huge and I can't stand to queue for long, so I asked about disabled access and was given a seat near the ticket booth and Lee then joined the back of the queue. This wasn't ideal but the queue was moving pretty fast so he got to me quite quickly and we went in. 

Almost no one was wearing a mask which I find annoying; Lee and I did though. The main stalls were in the big space upstairs so we got the lift and went across the bridge to go in. There was lots of stalls, mostly selling chocolate goods - bars of chocolate, cupcakes, brownies, truffles, etc - but a few selling other stuff like jewellery, pottery, candles and wax melts. A few places were giving samples which was great. We bought a few things, some as gifts and some for each of us. I got a cannoli, I've never had one before and was intrigued. 

We had nearly finishedl ooking at all the stalls when I started feeling really faint. My vision starting swimming and I was concerned I would actually faint, so we went back to the doorway and I sat down while Lee went to buy me a drink. Some of the staff called the first aid people so they rushed upstairs. I was hot and bothered, but felt a bit better after some water. I dunno what it was, but I'm grateful to the first aiders for coming to see to me. We skipped the last couple of stalls in the main room, but went into the smaller room to see the rest of the stalls. 

We had finished by about noon so we went to Craft and Dough for something to eat. It's on the Museum complex and I've seen it a bunch of times but never been in. Lee has though, he went with some band members one time. They used to just do pizza but now they have some sides both veggie and omnivore. It's not huge but we got a table. We ordered a margherita pizza to share, and Lee had chicken wings and I had cauliflower wings which were sticky and delicious. I had a peach and jasmine drink which was unusual but really nice, and Lee had orange squash! Unusual in a restaurant but he loves squash so he was happy. 

Afterwards we just came home, but it was a good festival and I would go again. 

In the main hall

Cauliflower wings

Pizza! I'm not usually that fussed for pizza but this was a nice one

Kelham Island Museum

While I was waiting for Lee I took this photo of some old steel works - only this wall remains now, all the building behind has been knocked down

And there was a stencil of Jarvis Cocker on one building - you know you're in Sheffield when there's a picture of Jarv!

Here's what we bought, from bottom left clockwise: truffles, chocolate orange muffin, rose and oud candle/reed diffuser/room spray (I treated myself), an aero caramel shortbread, focaccia that we ate for tea, coffee truggles, orange chocolate, more coffee truffles, and in the middle are my cannoli and salted caramel fudge. Tons!

A Look Through My Handbag

I recently (in October when I'm writing this) saw another blogger give a tour of their handbag and I thought it was a cute idea for a blog post so I'm stealing it. So if it was you, thank you! 

I bought myself a new bag at the beginning of October. I had a similar Harris Tweed bag that Lee bought me a couple of years ago, but it broke earlier in the year which was really annoying - the metal swivel bits in the strap broke and couldn't be replaced. I had gone back to an old bag that I've had for years. It was fine but didn't zip shut which I find irritating and a bit unsafe. So I looked online and found another tweed bag. The pattern is almost exactly the same as the bag I had before, but the shape is different. I like the pocket on the front - I've been popping my phone in there. 

Here's what I keep inside!

I like the flash of purple in the green tweed, and I like the brown leather handles too. There is a strap which is made of the same fabric as the bag, you can just see it under the brown handle at the top. It's a long strap which is good for me - I haven't yet worn it across my body but I definitely could and would if I was in a really busy city or something

Here's tissues, my hairbrush, two hand creams, a hand sanitiser, and a little bag which is full of masks. How things have changed since a couple of years ago now we're all carrying masks and sanitiser around! My hairbrush was from a gift set a few years ago but it's really good on my hair, I'll be devastated when it breaks

And my purse! I love my purse and how ridiculously patterned it is. My friend Stacey gave it to me; she had bought the changing bag it matched with but didn't need the purse. I love Hello Kitty and the rainbow. It is big so keeps loads inside it 

Here I've got painkillers, a charging block (my old one broke and I had to buy this one, but it's not as good), toothpicks, a charging cable, Fuji green tea eau de toilette which is one of my favourite scents, a rainbow keyring my friend Von bought me, a bee my mum bought me, a card holder purse, and an oilcloth purse I made myself.

The card holder is one Sam bought me and I love the biscuits on it. Inside is all my loyalty cards like Waterstones' one, and my library card. The oilcloth purse contains tampons, my Radar key, and lip balms

Here's my bag with everything inside it. There are two pockets on the side nearest me, I keep the hand creams in one. On the other side are two pockets - one right in the edge of the bag which is where I keep my hand mirrors, and in the other one are some stickers. As you can see between them there's a comb and some lipstick. I nearly always have a lipstick on me!

I hope you've enjoyed this little look at my handbag!

Visit to Shibden Hall

On the Sunday after Sam and I had been out, we went to Shibden Hall where the first 'modern lesbian' Anne Lister lived. I'm sure you saw the show Gentleman Jack about her life, but if not definitely go watch it as it's really good and Suranne Jones as Anne and Sophie Rundle as her wife Ann are both perfect. And Gemma Jones! I love her! I loved the show so have been wanting to visit the hall.

As we had a ticket for Jac we invited Sam's friend Jodie to come along instead. She agreed, which was great. My friends had told me previously that the walk from the car park at the bottom is quite a long way, so I had asked Lee to come along so that he could drop me off at the hall and then park. As it happens there is a small car park right next to the hall so we managed to park there, but this might be something you need to bear in mind if you find accesibility difficult. 

We picked Jodie up at the station and drove to the hall. I hadn't realised how big the park is, but then the hall is surprisingly small! It's bizarre. We walked round to the front and took photos as we were slightly early for our 12 o'clock ticket admission time. 

There's a one way system round the hall currently which seemed to be working pretty well. First there's a kitchen, which I think featured in the TV show. There's a big hall which Anne raised the ceiling of. There were other downstairs rooms, including a sitting room that I thought was in the TV show too. The upstairs was really tiny so I'm not sure what they used in the TV show there. But it was very cool to see Anne's bedroom. 

Back downstairs there's a shop, so we each bought some souvenirs - Lee got a pin badge and postcard to send to some friends of his, and I got some postcards. There was a film too by Helen Whitbread, who is an expert on Anne's diaries and the codes they were written in. She also happens to be my friend Steph's grandma! So it was cool to see, but I didn't watch all of it

Outside the stable buildings are now a folk museum. There's some of the Lister coaches which were good to see, and then there are things like a blacksmith and an apothecary. I'm really glad we went!

We headed back to Huddersfield because we'd decided we would go to Doner Summer again for lunch. I really wanted Lee to try it - he had a garlic "chicken" burger off the specials menu. I had fried "chicken" and we shared the garlic tater tots. Sam and Jodie had tater tots each, but they didn't finish them and I didn't finish my fried chicken. They nominated me to bring home the leftovers, so I had them for tea on Monday night! Lee really enjoyed his food which is good. 

I was wearing a plain black t-shirt and one of my Scarlett & Jo skirts, and the same Beth Ditto cardigan I had worn the day before. 

The tower at the corner of Shibden Hall was added by Anne Lister

The front of the hall 

It's really beautiful

Looking down towards the lake and parkland

There's a commemorative plaque on the front

I love a good hearth!

A sitting room

This is the main hall, also known as the 'housebody' which is not a word I've heard before

Another sitting room, I liked this one a lot

There was plenty of info about Anne and the other people who lived at Shibden

This is on the wall of Anne's bedroom

And the bedroom itself

Looking down from the gallery into the housebody

Another bedroom

Some of Ann Walker's things

The middle portrait is Anne Lister, the others are her aunt and uncle I believe

More info

Sam jumped up on the mounting block. She likes to be tall

One of the Lister coaches

Really cool to see!

Helena Whitbread talking about Anne

This is in the front hallway

Sam and Jodie in Doner Summer

Lee and me; I really like this photo!

Fried "chicken"

Tater tots, these are SO good

My outfit - I think I will wear this cardigan a lot this winter!